Transplantation of fetal frontal cortex onto degenerating thalamus of cats and kittens.
Tissue from fetal frontal cortex survived after transplantation onto the surface of the left thalamus in 2 kittens and 2 adult cats which 7 days previously had sustained a left cerebral hemispherectomy. There were nerve fiber connections with host tissue (WGA-HRP, Loyez myelin stain) only in the neonatal animals. The grafts contained surviving neurons in all but in one adult cat which survived 301 days. The grafts had little effects on the retrograde ventral thalamic degeneration typically seen following hemispherectomy. However, the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus adjacent to the transplants showed reduced neuronal loss and gliosis compared to controls. Magnetic resonance imaging was successfully used to visualize the grafts in vivo and suggested a decrease in size as well as changes in composition for a graft systematically followed for 120 days posttransplantation. Cytochrome oxidase histochemistry indicated sustained metabolic activity in transplants containing surviving neurons. This study introduces the cat as a useful model for brain tissue transplantation in a classical, myelinated sensorimotor system.
Villablanca
J R
JR
Department of Psychiatry, UCLA School of Medicine.
Shook
B L
BL
Hovda
D A
DA
Sutton
R L
RL
D000818:Animals; D002415:Cats; D002452:Cell Count; D004622:Embryo, Mammalian; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000166:cytology / Q000637:transplantation*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D009410:Nerve Degeneration; D013788:Thalamus / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*